Unseen milestone in merger

We notched up another success in our merger process over the weekend, upgrading the banking platform used by Australian Central to one of the most advanced in the country.

While it goes unseen to members, the banking platform is a big part of our operations – it determines what products and services we’re able to offer and is the link between members and their accounts.

Savings & Loans and Australian Central currently use different systems and a major step in making the merger a success is bringing these two ‘back ends’ together.

We’ve divided the changeover into two components: upgrading the system used by our Australian Central division, which took place on the weekend; and converting the platform used by Savings & Loans, which is a much larger project and will happen later this year.

The best news to come from the weekend is that the upgrade happened with very few members noticing any changes. There were a few minor disruptions but scheduling the upgrade for a weekend meant any impact on members was low.

Once the integration of the two divisions is complete, we’ll be able to take full advantage of the new technology to improve access for our members and the products we offer.

We’ve already introduced some great benefits for members as a result of the merger, including reducing fees and enhancing products (PDF), and the upgrade to our banking systems will open up even more improvements.

A lot of the work we’ve been doing since December 2009 will become apparent over the next few months as we announce the products our new credit union will offer and proposed new name, which members will vote on at our Annual General Meeting. We’ve had a lot of discussions with members about both of these important aspects of the merger, and can’t wait to share them with you.

Comments

What a pile of Cra....p ....
I have just been advised that I will need to change all my direct debit details by 1 nov otherwise all direct debits will be reversed. CU staff today advised this is a result the the "great merger" that you claim will only benifit members.
Sorry this member is disgruntaled that I have to make changes to accomadate your new wizz bang system that cannot tranfers debits from old accts to your new system. Any changes made to your system should not create any hardship, fees, charges to any member.

Im yet to see any changes made to direct debit systems go smoothly and without cost to the client.

Bet you dont have the where withal to publish this along side your aret we great blogs.

@David – Thanks for your feedback, and we understand that this can be an annoying process. A limited number of members are being asked to update their details with direct debit and credit providers, as they're using member or account numbers that became obsolete in 2003, and it seems your account is one of these.

We originally asked members to update their details when they became obsolete, and have been manually processing their credits and debits to the correct accounts since then. With the systems integration that is going on, we need to bring this to your attention again. However members would have been asked to update their details whether the merger took place or not, as it will improve the accuracy and speed of processing transactions.